Grants Program

As part of our mission to promote, encourage, and foster the arts and cultural institutions in St. Louis City and County, the Regional Arts Commission provides grants to non-profit organizations doing arts programming in St. Louis City and County.

RAC has awarded more than 5000 grants totaling $65 million since 1985 invested in the St. Louis arts community. In 2008, RAC awarded over $3.6 million to support 205 nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, consortiums and programs in the St. Louis area (more info).

One of the first arts agencies in the nation to develop and implement an online grants system (the eGRANT), RAC's call for applications for the Annual Grants Round begins in early December. Each grant request is carefully reviewed and discussed in an open, public forum by citizen panels, staff members and the Commissioners.

Grant applications are evaluated on the basis of several criteria including: quality of programs, innovative ideas, fiscal health, cultural diversity, local/regional impact, community outreach, management capability, and need in the community.